Watch Jim Henson’s Lost Cut-Paper Animation

We recently revisited some of Muppets‘ creator Jim Henson’s early video works, and now a new animation has surfaced online. Alexander the Grape is a 1965 cut-paper short that was discovered in 2009 and lovingly reconstructed by The Jim Henson Company Archives. The project hails from Henson’s Red Book, an extensive, hand-written journal of the artist’s ideas that he kept daily from 1965 to 1988. In the video, a young grape named Alexander follows his dreams of becoming a watermelon, dodging a sour bully in the bunch named Freddy. The story was missing several scenes when the Archives got their hands on it, which is why storyboard stills have been inserted. The drawings provide a glimpse of Henson’s creative process, and of course it’s always great to see more work from the much-missed artist. Check out the four-minute video short past the break.